vermont tour: by janice hoppe-spiers
Brewing up Success
Vermont breweries are creating a lot of buzz within the state and looking to expand.
During our time in Vermont, we explored Citizen Cider, 14th Star Brewing Co. and Zero Gravity. Although
all three have interesting stories and
unique flavors, Citizen Cider was delightfully surprising as its ciders are
not overwhelmingly sweet - a nice
change that I think some cideries
could take a lesson from.
Citizen Cider
I
It is cold in Burlington, Vt., in the middle of November, but the
city has a plethora of breweries to keep its residents and visitors warm. Food & Drink International was invited to explore
the state's technology and taps scene for three days last month,
visiting a number of manufacturing companies and breweries.
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food & drink international * winter 2017 volume 2 * www.fooddrink-magazine.com
Justin Heilenbach, Bryan Holmes
and Kris Nelson founded Citizen
Cider in 2010 and discovered their
ideas about hard cider translated into
some unique and interesting finished
products. The trio began by pressing
sweet cider in Nelson's barn and fermenting test batches of hard cider in
Holmes' basement.
Today, Citizen Cider's core products that are available year-round
include Unified Press, The Dirty
Mayor, The Lake Hopper and Wit's
Up. During our visit to the cidery in
Burlington, Vt., we sampled Wit's Up,
Mr. Burlington, Cori-Anderson, The
Americran and Citizen Cellar: Tulsi.
Citizen Cider uses locally sourced
apples and cider for all of its products every time. No sugar is added
during the apple-pressing operation,
which results in a cider that is less
sweet. The company is moving its
apple-pressing operation from Middlebury to 180 Flynn Avenue in Burlington, Vt. The apples are currently
pressed in Middlebury and transported to Burlington in a 6,000-gallon
tanker truck filled with apple cider.
The company distributes in New
York, New Jersey, metro Philadel-